Social skills of youth who play online game at internet cafe′ in Bangkok metropolis.

Abstract

Background : Previous studies of adolescents who play online games are those gamers will most likely have less social skills. However, there has been no study on the social skills of adolescents who play online games, as well as no correlation between the amount of time spent on game and social skills of adolescents who play online game demonstrated. This will help the nature of online game users more, and it is important to promote and develop the social skills of adolescents who play online games.

Objective : To determine the levels of social skills, the relationship between social skills, type of online games and time spent their playing. To compare the levels of social skills on each side with different time spent and different types of games.

Design : A cross – sectional descriptive study.

Setting : Internet cafes in Bangkok.

Materials and Methods : Data were collected from 471 youth who played online games at Internet cafes in Bangkok. Participants were to complete three questionnaires covering the following areas; 1) personal information; 2) evaluation of social skills; and, 3) test on behaviors of game addiction. The statistics used to analyze are mean, percentage, Kruskal-Wallis test and Spearman’s Rho correlation by using SPSS program.

Results : The study found hat 1.3% of students with social skills is avery low, 18.3% were low, 32.5% were a middle level, 29.5% were high and 18.5% were very high level. The types of game were not related to social skills, time spent and social skills have negative correlation at p = 0.01; social skills and game addiction have negative correlation at p = 0.01. Time spent on playing games and game addiction have different results on social skills on each side.

Conclusion : To study the social skills of youth who play online games at Internet cafes in Bangkok. The comparison of social skills as a whole individuals of the types of games were’ played and time used for playing the games. Including the relationship between social skills and time to play the game.